Archive for the ‘Beat Story 1’ Category

Aiding the community has become overwhelming for St. Joseph Parish of Zephyrhills. The need in the community far exceeds the funds that are being raised in the church, according to parish business administrator, Theresa Miner.

“It’s unbelievable what the amount of need is out there (in the community),” said Miner.

The parish aids local families by helping them pay for rent, gas, prescription medications and electric bills. However, since word got out about this practice the community need has doubled.

“We have been bombarded with requests,” Miner said.In the last 60 days, the church has received over 20 requests from different families. Most of the money the church raises comes from its parish members, according to Miner. Rent and electric bills add up quickly and the church is unable to provide enough funding for all.

“There just isn’t enough (funds being raised) to go around,” Miner said. She opens a folder full of request and reads one. It is from a single mother of three who needs help paying the electric bill. If the money is not paid by today, the power will be turned off.Since there aren’t enough funds for everyone, Miner is faced with a difficult decision.

“How do I pick and choose? Who am I to judge who needs the money the most?” Miner said. She is in the process of putting together an assembly of parish members who will help her in deciding which families receive funding.

Raising funds for charity outreaches is something that the parish has been doing for years. They raised 25 thousand for the Tsunami relief fund, according to associate pastor Jayanna Kanna.

“We are very a generous parish,” Miner said.The church also raises money every month for the St. Frances Foundation, which helps abused and neglected children in the area find safe places to live.

“When people are in need, we have to be there to help them,” Kanna said. Kanna is from India and has set up a program that aids the poor there, as well. The church sends money to India to help children in underprivileged villages receive an education, said parish secretary Kathleen Kelly. Pictures of the children are displayed in the church office.

In addition, the church creates food baskets and a toy drives during the holidays, said Kelly. To help assist funding for these programs parish members created a thrift shop boutique. They transformed a former priest house into a thrift shop. Trish Dunham and her husband helped transform the small dwelling into a shop that is run by volunteers. They painted the walls, hung bright colored curtains in the windows and converted the kitchen into a dressing room.

Here customers can find name bands, like American Eagle and Liz Claiborne for inexpensive prices and the money collected helps support the church’s charity outreaches.If interested in aiding the church’s charity programs, either visit the thrift shop or stop by with a donation.

CARROLLWOOD – Tampa welcomes a new Baptist Brazilian church in Carrollwood. At the grand opening, the new church had the presence of many Christians and non-Christian, whom came to celebrate that special night among friends and family. Lots of food and a great worship was also part of the celebration.

The Igreja Batista da Paz has 40 members. They used to meet at Bay Ceia Baptist Church, in Town and Country, but now they found a new home at Carrollwood. The new temple was yielded by the Iglesia Bautista Hispana de Carrollwood, and the new church will have its services on Sundays and Thursdays.

The Brazilian church will be sharing the same temple with a Hispanic and an American churches; therefore services in Spanish, English and Portuguese will be provided to better serve the Christian community in the area.

According to Eduardo Ink, a member of the new church, he and his family are very happy with the new home. “In this place we are finding the real peace,” said Ink.

Rev. Domicio Chavante, 41 is the leader of this group and the person responsible for its development. He moved recently from Rio de Janeiro with his family to lead this church, and is starting new ministries for the children, youth, adults, women, couples, theater and counseling. “We want to provide spiritual and emotional support for the Portuguese community in this area. Our goal is to win lives to Christ,” said Rev. Domicio.

“I love his vision, motivation and commitment with the church,” said Alexandro Oliveira, 28, drummer of the worship group.

The church has already full agenda for 2007. They already have activities for all ages, gender or marital status. In October they will start the home-based cell group ministry, in order to build more friendship and mutual support and training.

“This place is already a blessing in my life. We want to have communion with our siblings and be able to help each other. I believe in Rev. Domicio’s vision, and I know that we will walk forward,” said Ana Carneiro, a member.

The church is located at 2905 Smitter Rd., Tampa, FL 33618. For further information, please call 813-531-5000 or visit the web-site http://www.ibcarrollwood.org/.

Entertainment gurus in Tampa Bay and surrounding areas are moving to take the music industry in the area to a new level through weekly networking meetings. Known as the Bay Area Coalition, members include but are not limited to local artists, producers, managers and promoters who meet to create a market place for ideas, collaborations, and progress for the industry in the city.

“The major mission is to organize and create a national presence for the Bay area in the music industry by working to promote one another and create a strong bond here in our city,” according to Tampa Tony, the coalition’s organizer.

Yesterday marked the sixth meeting for coalition members. They finalized details for their first trip to the annual Gainseville Music Summit. Their goal is to network with influential people in the industry from all over the nation and get the sound of Tampa Bay into as many ears as possible. Members will wear shirts that signify membership of the coalition.

“The idea of the weekly meetings is to bring together the hardworking and dedicated artist in the industry here in Tampa,” said Lori Lynn Allen, a representative for the Bay Area Coalition. “We encourage people who are serious about their work to meet with other industry people to learn, teach and create.”

Seminars are held every Tuesday from 8 to 10 p.m. followed by an industry night, which will be open to the public at the Jerk Hut on Fowler Ave. until 3 a.m. A panel of experts will be available to answer industry questions and members will be introduced to new topics each week. Weekly topics include production, promotions, contracting, public relations and publishing.

“I’ve been working on music for years here and I’m glad to finally have a forum to work with other industry people outside of my immediate circle. It’s an easy way to pass on singles to DJs and meet with different producers,” said Smitty, a member who joined two weeks ago when he heard about the coalition through a flier.

Anyone interested in becoming a member is encouraged to register at the Tuesday night meetings. The monthly dues are $20, which includes a membership card and a t-shirt.

Off Shell Point Road lives By the Bay Café, a cheerfully decorated, yellow painted wooden restaurant where crab dishes are served up in cakes, soups, and atop fish.
Inside the restaurant, the interior decorating consists of themed rooms including: the tea room, the butterfly room, and the vineyard room. Each room is decorated with trinkets like butterfly wind chimes and candles, holders full of cream and sugar, and grape adornments.
Owner Darlene Anderson said in a Tampa Tribune article that the restaurant has a down-home feel.
“It has a quaint, homey feeling,” she said, “kind of like going home to grandma’s house.”
The restaurant is listed as “family style” under food and eating out in SouthShore on http://www.southshoreflorida.com.
The Café is known for its world famous Maryland crab cakes.
On a recent visit there, a guest and I tried one of these world famous crab cakes along with the cream of crab soup, steamed shrimp, blackened salmon, and the stuffed catch of the day.
According to the Maryland seafood and aquaculture website, By the Bay Café is a retailer Crab Meat Promotion Participant for 2007.
Under “where to buy Maryland crab meat”, By the Bay Café is the only retailer listed from Florida. Others are from Maryland, Virginia, D.C, and Delaware.
Rebecca and Charles, from Sun City Center, are regulars at By the Bay Café. The two come here about once a week, Charles said.
“This is a nice little place to eat,” Rebecca said. Her usual meal is the Chicken Cordon Blue; his is the crab cake, which he says is nicely cooked.
“Either that or the fish; Salmon or whitefish,” he said.
Anderson said busy season starts to pick up around October, and hits full fledge in January. She said it ends around the second week of April, with a 70 percent drop off (when all the snow birds leave).
The restaurant, which just celebrated its two-year anniversary, is having their second annual Crab Feast Saturday Sept. 29.
The feast, which will run from 4-8 p.m., will include beer, steamed crabs, corn on the cob, as well as other munchies and costs $39.99 per person.
By the Bay Café is located at 102 West Shell Point Road in Ruskin.
Hours of Operation are closed on Monday, Tuesday-Thursday 11 a.m.- 9 p.m., Friday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m.-10 p.m., and Sunday 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
For information, call (813) 641-9242. Reservations are suggested.

NORTH TAMPA–As temperatures rise up above 78 degrees, more and more people may try to find ways to cool off in the summer heat. The traditional way to cooling off is to indulge in a big bowl of rich, cold ice cream and what better place to take your family to enjoy this sweet dessert but to Cold Stone Creamery.

Cold Stone (that could be summed up in the three C’s: creamy, creative and corky) has become one of America’s “Top Ten” ice cream shops that has not once became tiresome after 20 years in the business. It has become more popular today because of all the different chain creameries all over the U.S and of course for its new additions such as smoothies, shakes and ice cream cakes.

Founded in 1988 by Donald and Susan Sutherland, their establishment was discovered in Tempe, Arizona after wanting to make a better brand of ice cream that included natural and high quality ingredients. With that, they discovered a new form of making mixtures fun and creative by allowing the customer to create his/her own mixture known as a “creation”. Once the fresh, add-in ingredients are chosen, it is then mixed together on a frozen granite stone [which is where Cold Stone received its name] in order to keep the ice cream from melting.

After coming to the shop about five times, Christina Diaz, 20, said she refuses to eat ice cream anywhere else because of how the ice cream doesn’t melt as fast as others do and for its natural flavoring.

“I recommend this place to my friends because their flavors don’t taste fake like others do,” said Diaz, “I remember eating the banana flavored ice cream and it tasted like they added real bananas. I loved it!”

According to Cold Stone employee in New Tampa, Emily Reich, 16, the batter is in fact made with real fruit and made fresh everyday through a machine that transforms soft, yogurt-like batter to hard, creamy ice cream. Reich also stated that Cold Stone has something that the other shops lack, one being customer service.

“It’s a very friendly environment to come to and even work in,” Reich said. “Everyone is singing and dancing and having a good time while making ice cream, although that’s not all that we are entitled to do. But we were told in training that we are not in the ice cream business, but in the “people business.”

Sandy Sash, 53, who came with her husband, Tom Sash, 53, to Cold Stone on Monday night to celebrate her husband’s big business deal, said that although she eats at Cold Stone every once in a while, she can truly taste the difference when eating somewhere else.

“I’m an ice cream FREAK!” said Sash. “My husband and I don’t come here very often because it’s very expensive. But what keeps us coming back is its great ice cream and its wonderful presentation when selling the product.”

With lines found around the corner, the shop tends to be very busy on the weekends with crowds of students who come from the Muvico Theater and even the older crowd could be found sitting on the outside of the store enjoying their delightful treats. The company also offers memberships for their website and for their online birthday club; plus promotions and gift cards.

So if you ever get a chance to visit Cold Stone Creamery and you want to see live entertainment; put a tip in the jar, then wait for a special song & dance by the entire staff. Sometimes even the customers waiting in line dance with them. Hey, these are the things to expect when waiting in a long line for a creamy, stone, cold treat.

Over the last two decades, many Americans have come to recognize the household name of Dr. Henry Heimlich and his famous maneuver to save choking victims. However, many people outside of the medical community have not yet realized the dark cloud hanging over his legacy.
Over the course of the last 30 years, Dr. Heimlich has promoted his maneuver (which uses abdominal thrusts to expel foreign bodies blocking the airway) to be used as a first rescue response for not only choking victims, but also drowning victims. The only problem, nearly every medical expert on drowning has disagreed with his claims. Dr. James Orlowski, chief of pediatrics at University Community Hospital (UCH), has been one of the major players in this controversy since the beginning.
Before coming to Tampa and joining the staff at UCH, Orlowski spent 19 years as a resident at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. It was there that he first took notice to the actions of Henry Heimlich.
“I started doing drowning research in high school when I wrote my first abstract paper on the subject,” Orlowski said. “I had always respected Dr. Heimlich for his work on choking, but his explanations for drowning defied scientific knowledge.”
In 1987, Orlowski published an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) documenting the case of a young drowning victim. The boy was submerged under water for one to two minutes and then given the Heimlich maneuver as a first response upon rescue, rather than CPR.
“This should have been a routine resuscitation,” Orlowski said. “But instead the boy aspirated on his own vomit, fell into a coma and died seven years later.”
According to Orlowski, he has collected over 30 cases in which the Heimlich maneuver was a hindrance in drowning rescue.
Much of the controversy that evolved out of Dr. Heimlich’s claims has thickened since 2002, when Dr. Heimlich’s son, Peter (here on referred to as Heimlich), and his wife Karen began to unearth years of medical fraud.
“Experts were never impressed with my father’s evidence, but until we came along no one took a close look at the facts of the cases,” Heimlich said. “We investigated and came to the conclusion that they’re dubious at best, fraud at worst.”
After realizing that they had stumbled onto something serious, Heimlich and his wife felt compelled to act.
“People trust my father because the maneuver has saved the lives of many choking victims,” Heimlich said. “When he tells them to do it on drowning victims, they don’t realize he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and that if they follow his advice they might kill somebody. We didn’t want anyone to be hurt, so we decided to make as much noise as possible.”
So, if using the Heimlich maneuver for drowning rescue is clearly dangerous, how was the good doctor able to work his way to the heights of the medical community, demanding they accept his maneuver?
According to Orlowski, Dr. Heimlich was a “very charismatic and dynamic individual,” and he was able to influence people because of it, using the media as his most efficient tool.
However, when dealing with his fellow doctors who disagreed with his drowning theory, Dr. Heimlich lost some of his charisma.
“Most people don’t know that my father cultivated a reputation in the medical profession as someone who would relentlessly attack other doctors,” Heimlich said. “He’d write letters to people’s bosses demanding they be fired and would hint at pending lawsuits. When confronted with that kind of behavior, most people prefer to stay out of the line of fire.”
After writing directly to Dr. Heimlich and publishing his article in JAMA, Orlowski witnessed the wrath first hand.
He began accusing me of all kinds of unethical behavior,” Orlowski said. “Basically he tried to make my life as miserable as possible.”
Orlowski remained steady regardless of the attacks, and according to Heimlich, he has been the most consistent and forthright opponent of the maneuver for drowning rescue.
“He did the right thing, which was to protect the public and to defend the scientific record,” Heimlich said. “The public may not know it, but we all owe him a debt of thanks. He may have saved a lot of lives.”

TEMPLE TERRACE, Fla. – Beginning Oct. 1, the Temple Terrace Public Library will cut some hours from its regular operating hours to save money in an attempt to prevent the library from possibly closing.

The decision is a precautionary measure in case the Super Homestead Exemption passes this upcoming Jan. 29. It is an alternative to the current homestead exemption. It would take away county and state funding.

Library Director Mary Satterwhite, a 36-year employee, said Tuesday night at a city council meeting, if nothing is done, then “there will not be a library next year.” The year would span from October 2008 – October 2009.

The hour cuts will not provide enough funds to sustain the library alone.

According to Satterwhite, by doing so, the library will save more than $29,000 a year.

County funding for Temple Terrace is $268,000 a year, said Satterwhite. Not all of it goes to the library. State funding goes to the library through Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative. Temple Terrace Public Library received approximately $37,000 last year.

Satterwhite suggested cutting the first hour in the morning and the last hour in the evening, which has the least traffic. The council voted non-unanimously for it. The new hours are 10 a.m.–8 p.m., Monday-Thursday. Friday-Sunday remain the same.

Alison M. Fernandez, a city council member, didn’t vote for the hour cuts. She said, “One thing that makes this a great place to live is the amenities.” Other libraries will be lost in the county, and service will increase locally. Money needs to come from somewhere else.

The city is getting the “short end of the stick all the way around.” Frank M. Chillura, a city council member, said. There are 22,000 citizens in Temple Terrace. There are 74,000 members of its library. Since more than two-thirds of members are not from Temple Terrace, the county needs to help.

Kim Leinbach, city manager, said the city is working on more annexations. This could help the library situation.

The city wants to collect taxes for delivering utility services to residential areas of Hillsborough County, says Community Service Director Ralph Bosek. The city will try to annex these areas, which are between Temple Terrace Highway and Harney Road.

According to Christy Supp, a representative of Hillsborough County Planning and Growth Management, in regards to annexation, nothing formal has been filed yet.

Annexing a property is not that difficult. “Usually, if it is in compliance with state law, it goes through.” Supp says.

Supp and Bosek both say it could take up to six months for an annex to be complete after it is formalized.

TAMPA – The University of South Florida Student Government took another step toward moving past recent controversial events Monday, confirming Faran Abbasi as its new vice president.

A new vice president became necessary after former VP Garin Flowers was promoted following ex-president Barclay Harless’ September 10 resignation in the wake of accusations involving alcohol found in his office during a freshman orientation event this summer.

The primary reason for Abbasi’s nomination was because of his experience in Student Government, having served as vice president under Frank Harrison last year.

Abbasi was confirmed by a vote of 20 to 6 and the senators that voted against him made sure to voice their opinions on why he should not be appointed. Reasons ranged from his lack of presence on the USF campus during his term last year to the theory that his nomination was the result of favoritism.

“The vice president position was supposed to be visible last semester,” Senator Keonna Pratt said. “In spring nothing happened. I was very disappointed. This position is very serious and visibility is my main concern.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Nicole Randazzo defended Abbasi, citing her personal history as an example of an SG officer doing her job done despite not being on campus every day.

“I worked for SG from home for awhile and nobody nailed me to the wall,” Randazzo said. “I had another job and couldn’t afford to fly here every week, but I was still involved.”

“I really feel like this is still the good ole boy system,” Thomas said. “If you have a friend, you’re going to pull them in. I just feel like last year was last year this is a new year.”

While Flowers acknowledged the concerns of the senators, the president insisted that having an experienced politician presiding under him will allow Flowers to spend more time lobbying at the state level, a skill in which former president Barclay Harless was proficient.

“Barclay was really good at (working at the state level),” Flowers said. “He could fly up to Tallahassee and meet with the senators. I don’t have his connections, but now I can really focus on what he did.”

After responding to the concerns of the senators, Abbasi wasted no time in voicing his intentions as the newest member of the student government’s executive branch.

“My first goal will be to trim some positions,” Abbasi said. “Garin (Flowers) and I are definitely going to sit back and evaluate things. There’s a lot of trimming we need to accomplish.”

According to Abassi, Student Government’s primary focus right now should be putting the recent cloud of controversy behind it, instead of questioning the methods of his nomination.

“I’m glad I could stay here and listen to (the senators’) concerns,” Abassi said. “I hold no ill will toward anyone for voicing their opinions but, in light of recent events, I think its time to start the rebuilding process and move past all this.”

YBOR CITY, Fla.- Feeling a little stressed out and need a reliever? Instead of the usual shopping or spa, head down to the Scientology Life Improvement Center.

Located inhistoric Ybor City, the Scientology Life Improvement Center offers free personality, IQ, aptitude and stress tests to help find answers in the interest of self. The Center provides workshop therapy in different areas of life including management, spiritual rehabilitation, morals, and ethics.

“The two most popular topics here are love and money,” said Joe Vangieri, Scientology Center Public Information Secretary.

With foundational religious theory stemming from L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics, the Center provides tools to balance the eight life survival partsof self, creativity, group, species, life-form, physical universe, spirituality and infinity with the belief that self is strongest when capable of balancing every dynamic.

According to Hubbard, man is composed of the three parts of mind, body and spirit. Dianetics deals primarily with the study of the mind divided into two sections of analytical mind and reactive mind.

Scientologists believe that it is the reactive mind that is composed of moments of pain and unconsciousness and allow a person to think and act negatively.

“When we think of a person or situation, we think in a series of pictures. By auditing the reactive mind, negative images are replaced with happiness and sanity,” said Vangieri.

Auditing also known as stress testing, is available free of charge at the Scientology Center. Counselors conduct one-on-one sessions using an e-meter; a religious artifact in the Church of Scientology.

The process of auditing identifies specific areas of aggression, trauma, pain and bad decisions in the reactive mind as a person responds to a specific list of questions. The e-meter measures a small change in electrical resistance in the body when a person is holding onto metal cans and a small current is passed through them.

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